Frequently in hospital emergency rooms as well as in other clinical settings, neck injuries necessitate radiographs to be taken. Accurate lateral radiographs of this region of the body are difficult to obtain because of the interference from the shoulders. The radiographs of the cervical or neck region of the vertebral column are taken from a lateral view to disclose possible injury. The shoulders often naturally block the view of the part of the sixth and all of the seventh vertebrae on the radiograph allowing injury of these last two vertebrae to go undetected.
To obtain radiographs of this region of the body it is a common practice to have a doctor suppress the shoulders of the patient in an attempt to get a clear view of the cervical vertebrae. Disadvantages of this method are that caudal displacement of the shoulders by the doctor frequently is not adequate to clear the view of the entire cervical area, and the physician undesirably risks exposure to radiation.
Today, the only method to displace the shoulders of a patient needing neck radiographs is mentioned above along with its disadvantages. No mechanical aids have been developed specifically for this purpose. Devices for restraint during the taking of X-rays are illustrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,358,141 and 3,933,154. Both of these devices utilize many straps and a back plate to totally immobilize the patient, usually babies or small children. Neither of these devices could cause the required manipulation of the shoulders to achieve the desired results.
Other devices which are for restraint purposes are U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,596,792; 3,247,843; and 3,776,540. None of these devices work with the desired part of the body to cause shoulder suppression.
Exercise devices which use straps over various parts of the body are seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,663,641 and 3,655,185. Both patents require that there be active involvement by the person using the device. To attempt to use these on a person with neck injuries would be unsuccessful due to the fact that these people often come into the emergency room in an unconscious or weakened state.
None of the aforementioned devices illustrate the auto-traction of the arms by the straightening of the legs to depress the shoulders. By using a strap around the wrists which meets under the feet and straightening of the legs causes a tensioning of the strap which results in depression of the shoulders to a degree such that the neck region is clear of shoulder obstruction for radiography.